to raise the canal by in the final . The engineer Alexander Clark prepared the proposal, with help from surveyors J & H Clayton. The statutory documents were submitted to Essex County Council on 30 November 1825, but the amount of trade likely to use the canal could never have justified the expense of so many locks, and no more was heard of the scheme. Milling The Crouch runs through a relatively flat landscape and is therefore not ideal for powering water mills. Nevertheless, there are at least five sites where mills are known to have existed, based on documentary records. The furthest upstream was at Great Burstead, possibly near to Noak Bridge, where a mill was recorded in 1593. It was said to be near Kemps Brook, and the miller at the time was John Crouch. A mill was also recorded at Ramsden Bellhouse in 1086 as part of the Domesday survey. The most significant of the mills was a tide mill at Battlesbridge. Local people from the parish of Rettendon petitioned the Lord of the Manor, Thomas Fitch of Danbury, for permission to build a mill on the north bank of the river in 1765. When it was built, the mill was situated on the south bank, and was therefore in the parish of Rawreth, where the Lord of the Manor was St John College, Cambridge. They issued a licence to Edward Bilding of Moulsham on 3 March 1766. Some negotiation was required with Thomas Finch, in order to place stakes, piles and boards on the north bank of the river, for which £5 had to be paid four times a year. The land on which the building stood was bought from the college, while the mill was complete by February 1767, and possibly earlier. It had four storeys and was powered by two water wheels, driving four pairs of French stones. There was also a house for the miller and an outhouse. The mill was sold in 1837 after John Deely the miller became bankrupt. For the sale, it was described as a tide mill with a house, a stabbling coach house and a granary together with an extensive coal wharf and brick yard with dry kilns. Impounded water from the tides drove a breastshot wheel which was in diameter and wide. Lighters could enter the mill leat through a set of gates at every tide. There